The first module, Leadership Skills out of the ten (10) modules for the Women in Politics Training (WIPT) was successfully completed on Saturday, 17th March, 2018 ad Sunday, 18th March, 2018. The two day session started at 9:00 am and ended at 4:30 pm on Saturday and at 10:20 am and 4:30 pm on Sunday. The session was to complete the module on Leadership Skills amidst group discussions and presentations, experience sharing and learning facilitated by Mr. Nortey Duah, a clinical psychologist.

DAY 1 (SATURDAY, 17TH MARCH, 2018)

The session started with an ice breaker and a teaser. Lessons leant were the need to follow and read instructions carefully as leaders, pay attention to details and think outside the box and even bring our own boxes if need be. Questions were then given to the participants to brainstorm and work in their respective groups (Platinum Ladies, RAHFAM, GEEM and Action Oriented Ladies) while encouraging questions, feedback and comments. Below are the questions and pictures of their presentations.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND PRESENTATIONS BY THE PARTICIPANTS ON SATURDAY, 17TH MARCH, 2018.

RHAFAM

Question: Who is a leader? What is leadership?

Many people believe that a successful, effective woman leader is really a man disguised as a woman. Do women have to discard their natural traits and characteristics to be effective in leadership roles? State your group’s position with examples of Ghanaian or global women in leadership.

GEEM

Question: Osagyefo Dr. Kwame Nkrumah said in 1957 “there is a new African in the world! That African can fight his own battles and show that after all, the Black Man is capable of managing his own affairs”.

Is there a ‘new Black African woman capable of managing Ghana’s affairs? Select any Ghanaian woman leader who, in your opinion, fits this description and explain your choice. If none meets the criteria, describe the qualities you would desire in your ‘new African woman’.

ACTION ORIENTED LADIES

Question: 61 Years after the historic declaration of independence by Dr Kwame Nkrumah in 1957, Ghana has celebrated its 61st Independence day with a declaration of a “GHANA BEYOND AID”. Many Ghanaians feel our male leaders have failed us and that the Ghana Beyond Aid agenda can only be executed by a woman. Do you agree with this assertion? Why would a woman leader be better equipped to effectively deliver the political and economic freedom that Ghana set its sights on in 1957?

PLATINUM LADIES

Question: Are leaders born or made? There are many who believe that women are naturally more endowed with leadership skills than men. What is your position on the above statement? What accounts for the poor representation of women in Leadership roles in Ghana despite their postulated ‘natural endowment’ in this regard?

To close the session, Mr. Nortey Duah, the resource person, lectured on leadership styles, qualities of a good leader and the building blocks of leadership. Deductions made from his presentation are as follows;

An effective leader does not adopt a one leadership style (Autocratic, Democratic and Laissez-Faire) rather, use any of these styles depending on the situation or factors such as Skill level and Experience of the Team, Internal Conflicts, Stress level, Type of task, Availability of time to Complete the Task and Commitment of the Team among others. A leader with an experienced, highly skilled and committed team for instance can use the Laissez-faire style of leadership since the team needs little or no supervision for a task to be completed.

The building blocks of an effective leader are Character, Values, Beliefs and Loyalty. Character develops overtime and in order to gain trust, a leader has to work on his/her

An effective leader grows other leaders and always wants the work.

DAY 2 (SUNDAY, 18TH MARCH, 2018)

The module on Leadership Skills continued on Sunday, 18th March, 2018 at 10:20 am with the quote, “We Are Like Pencils”. Humans are like pencils in five (5) ways.

Like pencils we must be heldbefore we write. Depending on one’s belief, the creator directs our affairs on Earth for proper functioning. Our parents, family and leaders also direct s and guides us.

Like pencils we are sharpenedto help us write well. Punishments, advice and corrective feedbacks are given to us to help shape us to live better lives.

Like pencils we were designed with mistakes in mind that is why a pencil has an eraser to correct mistakes. As humans we are not perfect therefore we must learn to correct our mistakes and move on rather than lamenting and making them weigh us down.

Like pencils the most important part is what is inside. Our character as leaders tells a lot about us.

Pencils write no matter the surface of the sheet. No matter the challenge faced, one must work and strive for the best always.

GROUP DISCUSSIONS AND PRESENTATIONS BY THE PARTICIPANTS ON SUNDAY, 18TH MARCH, 2018.

The participants were made to respond to a question in their respective groups and to present their findings amidst feedback, questions and comments. Below is the question and pictures of the groups during the brainstorming session, presentation and response to the question.

After the group presentations, participants were taken through topics like building self esteem and confidence, emotional intelligence, feedback and ethics. The following were insights from the presentations.

A determining factor of low or high self-esteem is a person’s past (nurturing). Most often than not, children who were nurtured with verbal abuse, rejection, neglect and negative comments grow up with low self-esteem and a negative inner voice that keeps reminding them of how inferior they are. The best way to conquer this is, to know yourself, manage your issues and have a positive worth for yourself, then you will know how to relate with people. The individual must learn to speak positively to oneself to help manage the negative voice.

Ethics is knowing what is right and wrong and doing what is right. The moral compass guides us in complex ethical dilemmas to do what is right. Personal intuition, code of conduct, the constitution and rules and regulations may guide a person in ethical dilemma.

Feedback makes you a better person by identifying and improving on your weakness while capitalizing on your strength. You can only give feedback to a person who is open to it. Feedback is not given to judge or evaluate a person so in giving feedback, it is best to always start with the specific positive comments and then follow up with the specific corrective comment with its impacts on you. It is very important to note that in order to own your statement, you must use the pronoun “I” instead of “We”.

In the absence of further questions, experience sharing and comments, evaluation forms were distributed and filled by the participants bringing the training to a successful end at 4:30 pm. The next Module-Presentation Skills is on the 7th and 8th, April, 2018. The following were the conclusions drawn from the filled-in evaluation forms:

All the participants learnt new things such as self-esteem, ethics, building blocks of a leader, leadership skills, feedback, challenges women face in politics and the essence of following instructions.

59% of the participants agreed that the model relevance, content/material, resource person, lecture, group work and general discussions were excellent while the remaining 41% thought it was very good.

Generally, according to the order of significance, the new things learnt by the participants were Self-Esteem, Ethics, Feedback, Situational Leadership, Leadership Skills, Building Blocks of Leadership, Emotional Intelligence and Challenges Women Face in Politics. Clearly, the participants had problems with self-esteem but the training has revived them to always have a positive self-esteem as leaders.

On the average, the participants felt the delivery of the module was excellent.

Going forward, 71% of the participants feel that reading materials should be sent before the session to enable them read ahead. There is also the quest for more group works, however, presentations should be as brief as possible so the program outline can e exhausted.

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